FIFA has provisionally suspended executive committee members Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner after a meeting of its ethics committee today.
Football’s governing body will now open a full investigation into allegations that financial incentives were offered to members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).
CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester have also been suspended.
But FIFA president Sepp Blatter was found to have no case to answer.
Petrus Damaseb, deputy chairman of the ethics committee, said of Bin Hammam and Warner: “We are satisfied that there is a case to be answered.”
However, FIFA insists that they are innocent until proven guilty.
If found guilty, they could be expelled from the organisation and banned from all football activity.
Bin Hammam was the only candidate due to oppose Blatter in the forthcoming election for the FIFA presidency but he withdrew in the early hours of Sunday morning.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirmed that Wednesday’s election would go ahead unless three-quarters of the 208 delegates voted to change the agenda.
FIFA had hoped today’s hearings would draw a line under this taudry affair. But with the investigation now set to drag on into the summer, world football’s problems don’t look like going away anytime soon.
Warner said he was shocked and surprised by the decision to provisionally suspend him.
“I will vigorously defend my reputation as well as the reputation of the rest of the Caribbean members,” he said in a lengthy statement.
Warner also described FIFA’s decision to provisionally suspend him from connection with the game as “an abuse of the process and achieves no real purpose” in a statement to the media. (BBCNews/CMC)